Neptune


We continue our exploration of the trans-Saturnian planets with Neptune.  Neptune has, perhaps, the widest range of manifestation, from negative to positive, of any of the planets.  We will see how this comes to be as we explore how Neptune’s symbolic essential meaning manifests within the psyche.

I believe the essential quality of Neptune is Dissolution.  Dissolution, itself, manifests along a broad spectrum of consciousness and reaction.  At the core of the idea of Dissolution is the concept of the transcendence of materiality and the return to a state of pure spirituality.  However, this implies a state to be transcended and, if transcendence is a continuing process, there is a state of ultimate transcendability (i.e., the state of grossest materiality), as well as of ultimate transcendence.

One manifestation of Neptune’s central idea of Dissolution can be found in the Hindu cosmology of the four yugas, or cosmic ages.  The cycle of yugas begins with the Golden Age, in which humanity’s connection to the spiritual worlds is transparent and an era of Peace and Bliss reigns on the Earth-plane.  It is at the start of the Golden Age that souls have freshly descended onto the physical plane from the astral worlds which, in turn, are a projection of the Universal Mind. 

Following the Golden Age is the Silver Age.  In this age, spirituality is still strong but humanity has lost their ability to freely traverse into the astral realms or enter into the causal realm of the Universal Mind.  Next comes the Bronze Age.  It becomes more difficult for humans to raise their consciousness and they must employ discipline and specific methods to do so.  Humans are increasingly involved in the mind games that play out upon the physical plane, many of which form the basis for the world’s great epic myths.  While noble character is still prevalent, there are those who act with evil intent and the ego is generally stronger than in the previous ages.

Finally, the world descends into the Iron Age, or Kali Yuga.  This is an age of suffering, in which the ego reigns supreme (or seems to, for it is actually a slave of the mind and of its attachment to the sense objects of the material world).  Each of these ages lasts hundreds of thousands of years, although as the ages become more materialistic, their span shortens, as does the span of human life. 

When the evil and suffering in the Iron Age have become unbearable, the Universal Mind withdraws Its projection.  The physical world dissolves into the astral world, and the astral realms dissolve into the mental or causal realms (Plato’s world of Ideas and archetypes).   The causal realms then dissolve into the Oneness of the Universal Mind at Its highest level.  After a “time” of rest, the Universal Mind, or Brahm, again projects Itself to manifest the causal, astral and physical realms and souls once again descend onto the Earth-plane in a new Golden Age.  After an innumerable number of such cycles, a Grand Dissolution occurs in which the Mind Itself dissolves and is absorbed into the spiritual realms, while each “level” of the pure spiritual worlds dissolves into the next higher until all is absorbed back into the Absolute One.

Because the human psyche is the microcosm of the Universe, which is the microcosm of still more elevated constructs, and so on, the psyche has a forgotten memory of all this.  Therefore, consistent with this hidden memory, the principal of dissolution manifests within the human psyche and is operative.  Its purpose and urge is to dissolve the ego and to absorb the soul back into her state of Oneness with the All.  This psychic force is symbolized, astrologically, by Neptune.

We can also see in the cosmology of the yugas a template for the extremely wide range of expression of the Neptunian archetype.  Through the progression of the yugas, the psyche, consciousness, descends into ever greater negativity and ever more degrading forms of bondage to matter.  Although individuals at any point along the cycle may transcendentally raise their consciousness into the pure spiritual realms (through a combination of Grace and effort), once entered into the cycle of the yugas, the collective psyche must descend to the very depths before the world-psyche can transcend the material plane through the process of Dissolution.

Thus, we have the essence of Neptune’s connection with suffering and with imprisonment, although we will see this manifesting in many ways as we explore the Neptunian archetype.  We also have the essence of Neptune’s association with ecstatic transcendence, for the inevitable dissolution of matter through the Neptunian force raises consciousness ultimately to a state of complete Oneness with the Absolute.  Thus, we have Neptune’s association not only with mysticism and the mystic state, but with all of the manifestations of that state as experienced to various degrees while in the body.

These manifestations include feelings of universal Love, of oneness with humanity or oneness with Nature, of unconditional love, overwhelming compassion, and intense empathy.  One characteristic common to such feelings is a dissolution of the boundaries of the ego.  We may feel that we are no longer separated from our brothers and sisters, from all of humanity or even from all species of life.  All of these feelings may be experienced at a greater or lesser degree of intensity but at whatever level, this is a Neptunian experience.

This leads us to another quality attributed to Neptune.  We may have a vision of the Oneness of All through Uranian Revelation.  However, we experience this Oneness through our Neptunian senses.  Neptunian experience is not intellectual.  It is not physical.  It is a feeling.  The Neptunian world is a world of emotionality; but it is emotionality on a transcendent scale—at least on that elevated level of the Neptunian continuum.  On the continuum of emotionality, Neptune represents the most refined and subtle emotions.  That is not to say that they are weak, for ecstasy is the most intense of the emotions.  However, they can only be experienced at the level of immateriality, when the boundaries of the self, the boundaries of our conception of “reality” have been dissolved.

At its negative pole, Neptune is also associated with emotionality.  The state of suffering is connected with the emotions of fear, despair and sorrow.  While these emotions may be outcomes of a variety of external events, I see them most associated with states of things falling apart—in other words, dissolving.  In fact, a common phrase used to describe these emotions is our “world falling apart.”  It is for those states in which we seem to lose our moorings, when things collapse from under us (as solid ground dissolves), when all that is safe and familiar dissolves away that these Neptunian emotions seem most appropriate. 

The intense feeling associated with the emotions of fear, sorrow and despair also tend to dissolve the boundaries around us.  There is a tendency when we experience those emotions to sink into them and to become absorbed by them.  In extreme cases it is almost as if a person becomes that emotion.  Such a condition can exist for someone suffering from depression, crippling anxiety and phobias, and other mental diseases (one vector for Neptune’s association with mental illness).

While such emotions may be the result of external events (loss is another type of dissolution), chemical imbalance or psychological trauma, there is also an existential cause for these dark Neptunian emotions.  This is the ego’s state of isolation and unreality.  Stripped of all defense mechanisms, the ego is left to face the reality of its situation.  On the one hand, is the knowledge of the ego’s own non-existence.  On the other hand is its experience of being trapped, alone, within the illusion of its existence.  The former inspires great existential fear that the dissolution of the ego will lead to a complete absence of consciousness, an entry into a state of permanent and absolute Nothingness.  The latter inspires great existential dread and despair at being imprisoned alone in its own barren self-reference for all of Eternity.  One is reminded of Dylan’s poor immigrant who hates the life they lead but equally fears dying. 

At the core of this existential fear and despair is the Neptunian imperative to dissolve all that is not purely spiritual, of which the ego is the last bastion.  It is the prospect of the ego dissolving into Nothingness that is at the root of this existential fear, from which all other fears are born.  It is the prospect of endlessly defending the fortress of ego that is at the root of existential despair, from which all sadness and hopelessness is born. 

While fear and despair are the most intense manifestations of dark Neptunian emotion, lesser intensities of these emotions are also associated with Neptune.  In a sense, these less intense emotions are a protective distancing of the psyche from the experience of the core emotions in their raw form.  These less intense emotions include anxiety, worry, sadness, melancholy, grief, and regret.  Of course, these emotions, though less existential, can be felt along a continuum of intensity and they are not immune from becoming overwhelming and disabling.

Another Neptunian association for which the cycle of the yugas is a symbolic blueprint is addiction.  Addiction is characterized by repetitively engaging in an act which produces an initial euphoria (or at least a relief from suffering) but degenerates into a Hellish experience.  Such seems, at least from a certain perspective, to be the pattern of the yugas.  The Universal Mind projects Itself into a state in which, through the agency of the individual mind and the psyche, it can experience great bliss and happiness.  However, this is only temporary and, eventually, the web of karmas drags the psyche and the mind deeper and deeper into negativity until we have all of the hells of the Iron Age—war, disease, inhumanity and our entrapment by ego and materialism.  Again and again, the same cycle is repeated with the same result.  It is as if the Mind is addicted to this material-world experience. 

Another Neptunian association that is referenced archetypally in the yuga cosmology is the phenomenon of “hitting bottom.”  This occurs at the very depths of the Neptunian continuum, just as the Dissolution of the material realms occurs at the very depths of the Iron Age.  In AA’s (Alcoholics Anonymous) construct, hitting bottom is recognized as necessary in order to begin the process of recovery.  It is also the experience of many that hitting bottom coincides with a realization (here, Uranus plays a role) of the possibility and imperative for redemption—a return to a state of Grace.  Hitting bottom, itself, is accompanied by a dissolving of boundaries, notably one’s ego defenses that have kept the psyche from seeing clearly its predicament.  There is often a feeling of unconditional surrender (a Neptunian phenomenon) and a merging into a Higher Power (also a Neptunian experience). 

The idea of unconditional surrender deserves further exploration.  As noted above, this occurs when all of the ego’s defenses have been dissolved away.  Then, there is no boundary that exists between the psyche and that to which the psyche surrenders.  The ego-will completely dissipates and the psyche is now guided by another Will.  In mystical terms, the lover is merged completely with the Beloved. 

Surrender is, in turn, associated with several other Neptunian phenomena for, like everything Neptunian, this concept is manifested along a broad continuum.  Closely aligned with the idea of unconditional surrender is submission.  Key to the level at which submission manifests is the nature of to what or to whom there is submission.  The higher or more noble is the object of submission, the purer the experience of submission will be.  For instance, submission to a spiritual discipline is significantly more beneficial for the psyche than submission to an abuser, but both are Neptunian manifestations. 

Thus, we can see Neptune’s rulership over monasticism, all forms of devotional religious practice, idealized romantic love in which there is surrender to the beloved, acts of selfless service in which one submits one’s own needs to the needs of another, martyrdom, submission to a cause or ideal, servanthood, and other forms of giving up one’s own will, as well as sado-masochistic practices,  and abusive relationships where there is an implicit consent.  However, I would maintain that submission that is forced, such as slavery, rape, conscription, etc., is Plutonian rather than Neptunian.

Returning to the core idea of dissolution, another facet of Neptunian dissolution is the dissolving of attachments.  Again, the essential expression of this is the dissolution of the attachment of ego to its identity.  There is a story told by the 13th century Sufi mystic, Farid al-Din `Attar in his book, Ilahi Nama. 

A clod of earth and a stone were traveling together when they fell from a bridge into the ocean.  The stone cried out that they were drowned, sunk to the bottom of the ocean, all alone.  However, the clod dissolved into the ocean.  Its tongueless voice could be heard saying, "There is nothing left of my ego here or in the heavens.  “I” no longer exist.  It is all the ocean!  I am completely merged."

The difference between the clod and the stone is that the stone remained attached to its identity and its boundaries.  The clod let go of these attachments.  Thus, it was able to merge into the Ocean of Bliss, completely losing its identity and transcending the material world. 

It is not so easy to give up our attachments and lose our identity.  A modern mystic has said that unconditional surrender is the quickest way to attain Union with the Divine but that years of struggle and effort in meditation is much easier than surrender.  With the dissolution of attachment we return to the classic dichotomy represented by the outer planets—the transformative imperative that these planets symbolize and the ego’s intransigent resistance to that force.  While transcendence of the material plane and of ego-existence is the ultimate goal of the psyche, most refuse even to recognize that as the goal of human life, let alone try to work towards it. 

Yet, working through the subconscious and through the manifestation of subconscious thought in the external world, the Neptunian principle ever tries to dislodge the ego from its attachments to what is illusory and false.  It is this imperative and the ego’s resistance to it that leads to suffering.  A primary mechanism for our Higher Self to act to dissolve our attachments is the experience of loss.  While Uranus can be associated with sudden and unexpected loss (which also detaches us), Neptunian loss is more of a fading away, a gradual slippage, or in some cases a mysterious disappearance.  Such loss, when it is not accepted by the ego, produces grief, sorrow, suffering, despair, anxiety, regret,  and self-pity—all Neptunian emotions.

This is not to abnegate the reality of these emotions or to imply that when we feel them we are to blame or that we are being egoistic.  These emotions occur naturally in us because it is natural to be attached to people and even to objects in the material world.  If we had transcended these attachments, then we would not be living on the material plane—our consciousness would be elsewhere.  Nevertheless, the reality of the created world is that suffering is a result of our attachments.
When we are able to face our losses with equilibrium, then it is as if our attachments to the lost object or person melt away.  This type of detachment, of rising above our attachments, is a Neptunian process.  However, this process can never be simply a severance of our attachments.  We cannot detach into nothingness.  Instead, as we dissolve our attachments to the material world, we must merge into, or attach our consciousness, to the spiritual realms.  Dissolution is never an annihilation.  It is being absorbed into another medium.  The salt when it dissolves in water does not lose its saltiness; rather it merges into the water and becomes part of the water, indistinguishable from the water.  Thus, the Neptunian tendency is toward transcendence, which is the raising of consciousness from one level to a higher level.

The experience of loss is not without purpose.  There is at least a two-fold purpose that we can identify.  One is to show the psyche that it does not belong in the material world—the material world is not her home and she can find no real happiness here.  It is to show the psyche that this material realm is the realm of suffering so that she can be convinced that she must transcend this realm and return to her spiritual state.

A second purpose of the experience of loss is to engender compassion.  Compassion is a Neptunian quality that arises through empathy, which is also a Neptunian phenomenon.  Empathy is the vicarious experience of another’s feelings, or the capacity to feel what another person is undergoing.  In order to experience empathy the boundaries between oneself and another person must dissolve to a certain extent.  However, it is also extremely difficult to have empathy if one has never had those feelings oneself which another is experiencing.  We cannot understand the pleasure someone has in tasting chocolate if we have never tasted chocolate ourselves.  So, it is extremely difficult to have compassion for another’s suffering if we have never experienced suffering in our own life.

Still another manifestation of the Neptunian quality of dissolution is the dissolution of the boundaries associated with the consensual reality.  By consensual reality, we mean the “reality” that is perceived by our five senses.  We call this “consensual” because, as Socrates and numerous others have demonstrated, our senses are not reliable.  In fact, there can be no assurance that what I am perceiving as reality with my senses is at all the same as what you are perceiving as reality with your senses, except that we both call that experience by the same names and tacitly agree that it is a common reality for both of us.  Furthermore, there is a tacit and collective consensus that the reality that we perceive with our senses is “real” and represents the world in which we live.  While some may posit that there are other “realities” or other levels or dimensions of reality, and some may have actually experienced such realities, there is no common agreement on what those realities may be like or even that any of them exist at all beyond the consensual reality.

We can also say that this consensual reality has firm boundaries.  These boundaries are the bounds of what is tacitly agreed to as what “reality” is.  Most people are indeed bound, to a greater or lesser extent, to the experience of the consensual reality.  At any rate, few humans can, at will, cross the boundaries of the consensual reality to experience other realms of consciousness.  For others, those boundaries are crossed but either only temporarily and not in a self-controlled manner, or not by conscious will (often through the agency of the subconscious mind). 

We can say, astrologically, that through its bounded and rule-dominated state, consensual reality can be most closely identified with Saturn.  Saturn is the planet that rules what is concrete and material and it is the quality of being concrete and material that is essential to the consensual reality.  In order for the consensual reality to be escaped or transcended (both of which are Neptunian actions), the boundaries around the consensual reality must dissolve. 

This dissolution of the boundaries of consensual reality can happen in many ways, all of which are Neptunian.  The most conscious Neptunian action undertaken to dissolve those boundaries is mysticism.  By going within, in other words by withdrawing our consciousness from the consensual reality, we dissolve the boundaries between levels of consciousness that ordinarily keep the psyche focused on and bound to the consensual reality.  We will return to the process of withdrawal later in this discussion, for this opens up another portal to the meaning of the Neptune archetype.

The mystic not only dissolves the boundaries of consensual consciousness which confines the attention to the material world.  Simultaneous and necessary to this process is the transcendence of the ego.  Thus, as the boundaries limiting conscious awareness disappear, the boundaries that confine our awareness and identity to the ego are also being dissolved. 

Close to the mystical experience—but less self-controlled and less able to dissolve boundaries of consciousness to an extent that the psyche is actually able to leave the realm of consensual consciousness—are intuition and imagination.  Both intuition and imagination can be likened to a thinning of the veil between the consensual reality and other realms of consciousness.  Ibn al-`Arabi, the 12th/13th century Sufi mystic, actually called those realms lying beyond the world of consensual reality “the imaginal worlds.”  They are “imaginal” because they are undeniably a projection of the mind, an immaterial embodiment of mental constructs, a world of images rather than of material bodies. 

At our level of consciousness in the material world, imagination and intuition allow us to get in touch with those imaginal worlds.  With our imagination we are able to conceive of possibilities that are not (yet) a part of our material reality.  They may be possibilities that cannot exist in the world of consensual reality or they may be possibilities that are consistent with the laws of consensual reality.  They are, however, never so far removed from the consensual reality that they would be inconceivable—for the very definition of conceivable is that it can be constructed by the mind.  If we were to perceive a phenomenon that is inconceivable—not able to be conceived by the mind at this level of consciousness—this means that we have mystically transcended this level of consciousness into a realm of consciousness where the laws of consensual reality no longer operate.

Nevertheless, through the flight of our imagination, we do dissolve to some extent the rigid Saturnian boundaries of perceptible reality.  We enter, if only in our thoughts, another world, thus, dissolving the boundaries that hold our psyche to the realm of the five senses. 

Through intuition, we also dissolve the boundaries between the world of consensual reality and the imaginal worlds but in a way that is different from imagination.  Imagination is will-directed relative to intuition.  In fact, we may intentionally direct our imagination toward some imagining.  At other times, we let our imagination flow freely but even this requires some act of will.  It is only rarely and, even then, only when accompanying some other psychic phenomenon such as revelation or intuition, that imagination will come unannounced and unbidden.

Intuition, on the other hand, does generally come to us unannounced and unbidden.  Intuition may be described as what occurs when the boundaries of consensual reality are dissolved to the extent that this allows content from the imaginal worlds to enter into our awareness—whether this be from astral realms or our subconscious or from the collective unconscious. 

Both imagination and intuition, though ruled by Neptune, involve functions of the psyche that are associated with other planets.  This is because Neptune’s realm essentially lies beyond the boundaries of the consensual reality.  In order for the Neptunian energy to enter into the realm of consensual reality, it must employ the assistance of other psychological functions that are grounded in perceptual consciousness.  For imagination, this primarily involves Mercury which gives imagination its thought-form.  Imagination will also often employ Venus, which gives what is imagined its qualitative form. 

For intuition, the Moon can be seen to be involved, for intuition most often works at the level of feeling.  Of course, Neptune’s association with subtle emotions and feelings is also relevant.  Mercury, too, can be involved with intuition when intuition leads to solving some analytical puzzle. 

Another, and perhaps the most common, dissolving of the boundaries of consensual reality is our experience of the dream world.  Dreams, ruled by Neptune, are a more total dissolution of those boundaries though the agency of volition is almost completely absent.  In dreams, our waking consciousness dissolves and lets in images that we have stored within our subconscious mind or, at times, archetypes that exist within the collective unconscious.  The absence of will in our dreams is evidenced by the fact that, most frequently, when we try to exercise our will in a dream, this is frustrated; we cannot employ our will to control the dream. 

The boundaries between the dream world and the world of consensual reality are extremely porous.  Again, the image of a thin veil is appropriate, suggesting a dissolution of boundary but a dissolution that is not complete.  This porousness not only allows the psyche to enter the dream world from the world of waking consciousness but it allows content from the waking consciousness to enter the dream world.  Thus, though the dream world is not the consensual reality, it is inhabited by elements that bear a close resemblance to that which exists in the consensual reality. 

Another state in which the boundaries of the consensual reality are involuntarily dissolved is insanity, or the state of being differently aware.  Here, the boundaries of the consensual reality have been completely, or almost completely, dissolved so that this allows the psyche to enter realities that are different than the consensual reality.  Sometimes the psyche retains a certain amount of grounding or awareness of the consensual reality. Sometimes the psyche may alternately pass through the boundaries of the consensual reality or inhabit a consciousness that remains within those boundaries. 

Regardless, the state of “losing touch with reality” is a Neptunian state and, therefore, Neptune rules insanity and mental illness, generally.  Of course, not all mental illness involves entering into non-consensual realities.  However, for the most part, those that do not will involve some form of distortion or amplification of loss of control involving the Neptunian emotions.

Neptune also rules practices by which we willfully attempt to dissolve the boundaries of consensual reality.  I put these into two broad classes.  The first is the use of substances, both natural and artificial, to attempt to transcend the consensual reality.  Into this class fall psychedelics and alcohol or other substances when used to achieve an ecstatic state.  Also included would be other practices designed to dissolve and transcend the boundaries of the consensual reality, such as ecstatic dance. 

The second class are substances designed to blur or dissolve the boundaries, or perception, of consensual reality in order to escape from awareness of one’s state within the consensual reality.  This is usually to escape a condition of pain and suffering, which itself is likely to have been associated with a Neptunian phenomenon to begin with.  This is often characterized as numbing the pain or self-medicating.  The suffering that is being numbed may be physical, emotional or existential suffering.  The person engaging in such self-medication generally sees no other way out of their suffering.  In a sense, this can be viewed as a failure of the Neptunian imperative because resorting to mind and body-numbing substances is usually a sign that a person has failed to recognize the “lesson” being conveyed by the experience of suffering—the need to transcend material attachments and even material existence. 

Substances associated with this class of escape include narcotics, amphetamines and alcohol when used to numb awareness.  The ultimate, or extreme, escape from pain and suffering is through suicide, which is another phenomenon that is associated with Neptune.  Through suicide, the native attempts to end their experience of an unbearable reality by extinguishing their existence (or at least their existence in the present life on the material plane of consciousness).  This can be seen as a perverse expression of the Neptunian goal of self-transcendence and the dissolution of the ego.  Alternatively, one may recognize this need but be deluded about the way to fulfill that need.

In fact, self-destructive behaviors of all sorts are a manifestation of this perverse Neptunian character.  It is one of the ego’s last defense mechanisms.  Rather than face its own unreality and dissolution, the ego chooses to destroy the identity that it inhabits.  It is akin to someone inflicting pain on themself because if they can feel pain at least they know that they are alive.  If the personality self-destructs, at least it is the self, the ego, that is doing the self-destructing.

This impulse to escape is generally a distraction from the Neptunian goal, except when this impulse to escape is channeled into a practice that will allow the psyche to escape the confines of the consensual reality, the material world.  This desire to escape the trap of ego is the true and positive manifestation of Neptunian escapism.  In between the longing for Return to the Transcendent state and the self-destructive behaviors of substance abuse, there lies a range of more benign modes of escapism that, nevertheless, are distractions from the real goal. 

Such forms of Neptunian escapism include fantasy, entertainment, daydreaming and other forms of distracting oneself from our experience of the world.  What these all have in common are that we enter into an experience that differs from the consensual reality.  From the standpoint of that limited reality, those escapist experiences constitute illusion.  Ironically, from the Neptunian transcendent perspective, it is the consensual reality that is the illusion.  From either perspective, illusion represents the dissolution of what constitutes reality, whether it is the sense-based consensual reality or the Reality of the Absolute.  Relative to the latter, illusion, or Maya, is an existential condition which dissolves our awareness of the Real.  Relative to the former, these benign illusions are only an abnegation of what is considered to be concrete and real. 

Within the realm of the consensual reality, illusion encompasses a range along the positive-negative continuum.  At the positive or benign end of the continuum, it would include performance magic and legerdemain, optical illusions, and virtual realities.  At the negative end of the spectrum illusion includes charlatanism, fraud, deceit or deception, and habitual lying.  Also associated with this negative aspect of Neptune are all forms of untruth (which, from an existential viewpoint, is a definition of illusion).  We can conceive of untruth as a dissolution of truth, in the sense of evil being an absence of good.

We can now return to the topic of withdrawal.  To illustrate Neptune’s association with withdrawal, we can again look to the Hindu cosmological construct of the Dissolution.  The process by which the Dissolution occurs is through a withdrawal of conscious energy from one plane of existence into the next level.  This is also the process through which transcendence occurs.  Transcendence is a process of withdrawal from the object or state to be transcended. 

We can also gain a clearer understanding of Neptunian withdrawal by contrasting it with Jupiterian expansion and Saturnian contraction.  As discussed in the segment on Jupiter, expansion is a process of pushing or extending boundaries outward.  It is an expansion of horizons.  Thus, with expansion, there is always a boundary which is moving outward.  Contraction is also associated with the presence of a boundary for it is the boundary that contracts and the boundary that forms the limit within which that which is contracted is held.

Withdrawal, on the other hand, dissolves boundaries or, in another sense, causes one to become oblivious to boundaries.  Rather than contracting boundaries, withdrawal simply leaves them behind.  There is a boundary in the sense that one has withdrawn into something and that something acts as a container for the withdrawal.  Yet, the focus of withdrawal is not on the outer boundary but on going deeper within.

Neptune’s association with withdrawal opens another host of related concepts and phenomenon which Neptune then can be said to rule.  This is another entry into Neptune’s rulership over monasteries and monastic life, which is one of withdrawal from secular society and is marked by a life devoted to contemplation, a withdrawal of the attention from all that is not contemplated in order to concentrate the attention on the object of contemplation. 

When withdrawal is not voluntary, it is perceived as confinement.  Here, we have Neptune’s rulership over prisons and mental institutions, as well as hospitals and other types of asylums.  In these phenomena, the idea of withdrawal intersects with other Neptunian associations, such as suffering, insanity, and departure from the consensual aspects of the social order. 

The positive aspect of withdrawal is found when it is in service with Neptune’s ultimate goal of transcendence and the dissolution of the ego and the ego’s attachment to the material world.  This is done through meditation and similar forms of spiritual practice.  Through the withdrawal of consciousness from external forms and contemplation on the Real, the psyche withdraws from its imprisonment by the ego, withdraws from the limits of the consensual reality, withdraws from one level of consciousness to successively higher levels until the psyche merges back into its origin, the Ocean of Bliss.

Neptune’s watery association and rulership of oceans and seas can be viewed as deriving from this mystical metaphor which designates the vastness, the limitlessness of the spiritual worlds.  Water is also the substance most associated with dissolution.  It is the universal solvent, capable of dissolving more substances than any other liquid.  The ocean also evokes feelings of boundarilessness, especially when one is out on the ocean with no shoreline visible even when one has sailed for many days.  The ocean does not expand, but we cannot conceive its boundaries.  So, anything that appears as boundariless must be considered to be Neptunian.

Another quality of withdrawal is from the perspective of the one who has not withdrawn.  Specifically, that which has withdrawn now appears to be hidden.  Thus, Neptune is associated with things hidden.  There is much to be said about hiddenness.  When a thing is hidden, it is as if it is behind a veil or behind some barrier or boundary.  We are only concerned about what is hidden, however, when we are aware of that thing, or when we are aware of the veil that hides it.  Otherwise, we are oblivious—we are unaware of what we do not know. 

Thus, there is a quality of boundary dissolution, or a dissolving of the veil, inherent in anything that is perceived to be hidden.  This is because the veil must be dissolved to some extent if the thing that is hidden is not so absolutely hidden that we are  not aware that it is hidden.  Furthermore, our concern with things hidden is in their potentially becoming unveiled, for only then will hidden things affect us.

The character of the unveiling of hidden things is in relationship to the degree to which the boundary between us and the thing hidden has been dissolved.  That veil may be dissolved only enough for what is hidden to have some effect on us but the thing itself remains hidden.  A little more dissolution and we become vaguely aware of what is hidden.  When the veil is completely or almost completely dissolved, then what was once hidden is revealed.  All of these are Neptunian phenomena.

It is when things are hidden, and especially when knowledge is hidden, that mystery arises.  Again, there must be at least some degree of dissolution of the veil, for something is not a mystery until we become aware that there is something hidden, something that we do not know or perceive.  The solving of the mystery is the gradual thinning of the veil that covers it.  Hence, Neptune is associated with mystery and things mysterious. 

The mysterious can convey various qualities.  These include curiosity, allure, entrancement, as well as fear, puzzlement, anxiety, and confusion.  Many of these emotions can be sparked by the perception of things being hidden.  Particularly if we are insecure, the idea that something is hidden from us—and especially that it may enter our life unpredictably—may cause us to perceive that hidden object with distrust.  We may form an image of that thing as sinister, lying in wait for us,

Generally, most people have a problematic relationship with the unknown.  Perhaps this is naturally human.  Rather than being perceived as opportunity, as frontier, or as a cause for humility, the unknown is often feared.  This fear is based upon ego-insecurity—the thought: what will happen to me?  and the fear that this could be not to our liking.  We may project our fears and insecurities onto the unknown.  There may also arise an urgent desire to explain the unknown, to de-mystify it in some way.  When, however, there is no clear explanation, or when dealing with the unknown becomes too complex and difficult to absorb, Neptunian fantasy and illusion may take control.  Thus, we can assign to Neptune conspiracy (real or imagined), rumor, and scapegoating.  Disinformation (Neptune’s sometimes loose relationship with the truth) often feeds these abnormalities.  They are also associated with another Neptunian phenomenon—delusion. 

When veils begin to be dissolved, other qualities associated with Neptune also begin to arise.  As dissolution takes place, partially revealing what lies behind the veil, we get vague impressions of what has been hidden.  We may become confused because things are not yet clear.  Vagueness, ambiguity and confusion are all Neptunian phenomena that accompany dissolution.  While most people tend to react negatively to these phenomena, they also signal opportunity for growing awareness.  Vagueness and ambiguity often accompany intuition, and confusion may be a prelude to grasping an idea. 

Finally, I would like to explore another quality that is associated with Neptune—idealization.  Though not intuitively obvious, idealization and idealism, too, can be connected to Neptunian dissolution.  First, we have the connection to Neptunian illusion.  From the perspective of Saturnian “reality,” idealism and idealization are founded in a suspension of reality, a deep desire for things to be other than they really are, more perfect than is possible.  Eventually, so the realist proclaims, we will become disillusioned and whomever or whatever has been idealized will be found to be less perfect than we had envisioned.  In a sense, the illusion of the ideal dissolves.  

Idealization and idealism also have an association with Neptunian dreams—not the dreams of our subconscious but our dreams and aspirations for a more transcendent state, one that is infused with Neptune’s higher values—a world that is ruled by caring compassion, selflessness, and unconditional love.  We may know that such a world will never exist, that our ideals may never be realized, but we can suspend our day-to-day reality and dream.

This suggests another Neptunian vector for idealism and idealization.  When we idealize something, we are visualizing that person or thing as existing on a transcendent level.  Our idealization is a psychological movement toward the transcendent and, thus, a move toward dissolution of the more gross level of existence that we currently inhabit.  We assign to the idealized object qualities of perfection that do not or cannot exist at this level of reality.  We are mentally dissolving away the impurities that otherwise would be attached to the idealized object.  When we enter a state of idealism, we are simply attaching our attention and our values to what we have idealized. 

Can we truly actualize the idealized state?  This is the purpose for which Neptune’s faculty works.  It is to dissolve our attachments to what is not ideal and, thus, to dissolve the imperfect, transcend the material, and merge with the Ideal.  That Ideal contains all of the positive qualities that Neptune manifests.  It is the Transcendent Ideal which is All Love.

--Gargatholil

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